New Delhi: Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Minister of State for Planning, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences said that India has decided to double the expenditure in Research and Develpoment (R&D) and major initiatives were being taken by India in super computing, material sciences, genomics, nano sciences and plant breeding techniques and synthetic biology etc.

Addressing the Opening Plenary Session of the 8th Annual Meeting of STS Forum on “Science & Technology for the future of Humankind” at Tokyo today during his Japan visit, Dr Kumar further said that India is inspired by the vision of Jawaharlal Nehru who had said that the future belongs to Science and those who are friends of science.

Talking to the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology, Mr Masaharu Nakagawa, Shri Kumar assured the Japanese minister that the Government of India would favorably consider the proposal dedicated to the idea of regional and global endeavor to solve common problems. Japan is to begin the East Asia Science and Innovation initiative which will be a dedicated fund sought to be established under this initiative to enable cooperation between East Asia, ASEAN and South Asian countries to focus on solving the common challenges faced by the region through the instrumentality of science, technology and innovation.Dr. Kumar also expressed the hope that India and Japan would further strengthen their engagement so as to achieve the joint objectives of Global and Strategic partnerships between the two countries.

During his meeting with the German Minister of Education and Research, Ms. Annette Schavan , Dr. Kumar proposed a major Indo – German programme for vocational skills up gradation. He expressed the hope that German expertise and collaboration with German industries and business would enable India to achieve its ambitious programme of skilling 500 million Indians by 2022. The German minister assured Dr. Kumar that her department and German industry would give concrete proposals in this regard by early next year. Dr. Kumar expressed the view that such a venture would be mutually beneficial to both countries and would ensure employability of lakhs of Indians in hi-tech manufacturing companies in India and abroad particularly in Indian companies collaborating with their German counterparts.

This is an International Conference dedicated to the theme of ‘Science & Technology in the Service of Human kind’. The conference is hosted by STS Forum; a major NGO supported by the Government of Japan and Chaired by Mr. Koji Omi, former Finance Minister of Japan. The conference will be attended at the ministerial level by over 20 countries including Germany, Brazil, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden, Mongolia, the Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan etc.